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D.C. area maintains stable tech employment

D.C. area maintains stable tech employment

By Susan M. Menke

Apr 06, 2005

The Greater Washington Initiative, a marketing and economic development organization in the Washington, D.C., area, yesterday released at the FOSE trade show a study of IT, communications and new media employment, culled from interviews with about 40 industry leaders.

Among the findings:

Greater Washington's technology workforce approaches 333,000 (one in 10 area workers), more than twice the national average

About 1 percent of local vendors-61 companies'collected $19 billion worth of federal contracts in 2003, nearly half the annual total of all federal contracts awarded locally

More network and systems administrators, database administrators and programmers reside and work in the area than in any other technology employment region.

William Couper, GWI chairman and president of the Bank of America in the Washington area, said the IT and communications sectors "have experienced considerable changes. We learned from this study that our region has maintained relatively stable technology employment over the past four years despite major shifts in the types of work being done."

He said that places Washington in "a unique position compared with other major U.S. metropolitan areas, including San Francisco and San Jose, Calif."

The 32-page report is online, and printed copies will be available in mid-April.